Upton gently nurtured Anna back toward health, and soon he marveled at her progress. “Who would have thought in November she would be getting on a bus and going to school?” he told this newspaper, a few months after she moved to the U.S., in 1991.

Anna is 37 now, thriving at home in Michigan with her parents, Eli and David Brooks. In a recent family photo, Anna flashes a smile in front of a decked-out Christmas tree, next to her parents and two sisters.

Due to the abuse she faced in the orphanage, she has some developmental issues and trouble communicating, her mother Eli Brooks, said — but that hasn’t stopped her from becoming the family comedian. “She’s got an amazing sense of humor. She’s her own unique person. She’s done very well with us,” Brooks said from Michigan. Anna “learned English in the bat of an eye — I can’t believe how fast that girl learned English.”

Anna Brooks and her family, Christmas 2012. Eli and David Brooks adopted Anna, who came to the U.S. from Romania in 1990.
— Courtesy of Eli Brooks

Anna Brooks and her family, Christmas 2012. Eli and David Brooks adopted Anna, who came to the U.S. from Romania in 1990.
/ Courtesy of Eli Brooks

The Brookses don’t speak Romanian, not out of lack of interest, but because Anna refused to teach it to her family for a simple reason: Everyone had to speak English in America.

What Brooks will remember most about Upton: “He was a strong advocate for the kids, and he had tremendous passion and determination to get them out. That’s one of the things that struck us the most. He just had to get them out,” she said.

Brooks added that beyond taking action, he was an advocate for causes he believed in, and that is how his impact grew. “He never missed an opportunity to spread the word, not just about Romanians but other things he was involved in.”

Upton was an outspoken abortion opponent and made waves with his documentary footage of an actual abortion, using a fiber optic camera to show the procedure. He traveled around Europe with singer Pat Boone to promote one of his anti-abortion films, which premiered at the White House.

In 1987, he filmed a project about family violence for the Justice Department, and had former pro football player Lyle Alzado play a criminal who beats him up.

Brooks was struggling Friday with how to break the news of Upton’s death to her daughter. “This is going to be hard for her. … Anna loves John.”

“We will love him forever,” she added.

High fives, new lives

Izidor Ruckel remembers. He remembers the orphanage doctors, who wrote him off as “dimwitted.”

Izidor Ruckel left Romania in the early 1990s. Today he's an author and aspiring filmmaker.
— Courtesy of Izidor Ruckel

Izidor Ruckel left Romania in the early 1990s. Today he's an author and aspiring filmmaker.
/ Courtesy of Izidor Ruckel

Now Izidor wants to make sure others heal — by remembering. A few years ago, he wrote a book about his experiences, called “Abandoned for Life.” “My goal was to let people who went through what I went through to know that there is hope in this world. Help does eventually come your way. Just hold onto that hope that someone’s going to hear your voice and someone’s going to find you.”

That someone was Upton.

He remembers early meetings with Upton. “He used to come by there every day. He’d play, hang out with us, talk to us, give us high fives,” Ruckel said.